This is what we have on board for you

9 Good Reasons to Get a Job at NPorts

Collaboration Within a Great Team

We are people with different professional backgrounds, skills, personalities, opinions, nationalities, ages and genders. This diversity is what defines us. We think it is important that we can rely on each other, achieve success and celebrate together. In short: Without teamwork, we would go down. We believe in the guiding principle: “We work best together when we know each other." Getting to know each other starts with a good work introduction and participation in the New-At-NPorts Day or Apprentice Day. Through regular employee meetings, we have the opportunity to give and receive feedback beyond the daily exchange. Our team work takes place in person on site and digitally on our social intranet. This enables us to exchange information quickly across departments and locations.

Safe Workplace and On-Time Salary

NPorts is a reliable employer: In addition to punctual pay, an annual bonus payment, and an attractive, mostly employer-funded pension scheme (capital accumulation benefits/VBL), we offer our employees a secure workplace.

As a 100% subsidiary of the State of Niedersachsen, we are also subject to the collective bargaining agreement of the federal states (TV-L). But what does that actually mean? In simple terms, it means the following: Our employees are classified into different pay groups depending on their professional or academic degree and occupation. With greater seniority, the advance to the next higher level takes place automatically - after fixed intervals - which results in a higher remuneration. In addition, there are tariff adjustments to the remuneration that are negotiated by the union for the employees.

Versatile and Exciting Tasks

All there is in a port are ships, quay walls and water? There is far more to it. In our 15 locations, we ensure smooth port operations every day. For example, our quay facilities and moorings are planned, built and maintained by our port construction team (consisting of civil engineers, technicians, construction supervisors, technical draftsmen and many more). For the locks in our ports we need female and male specialists in the field of electrical and mechanical engineering. To ensure a safe voyage, navigators guide the ships and crafts throughout the port, and the crew on board steers our dispatched working vessels. Our professional spectrum ranges from business men and women to port captains. Get familiar with the plethora of our different jobs.

Appreciation and a Positive Work Atmosphere

Our “Joint Commitment to Collaboration and Leadership” is the basis for mutual cooperation. The values contained therein ("We are reliable, trustworthy, responsible, promoting/developing, honest, team-oriented, respectful, communicative, and open to dispute.") give us valuable orientation for the mutual interaction in our daily work. This gives us a binding framework for action for all of us, regardless of which area we are working in or which tasks we are dealing with.

Joint Experiences Are Bonding: At our annual team event, we meet at one of our locations traditionally for Boßeln (a kind of shot-put game) and a joint "Flip Out". This promotes our team spirit and the exchange among ourselves.

Training and Continued Education Opportunities

Training and continued education are of great importance to us. That's why we train beyond our own demand and offer our apprentices high-quality support. But it is not only our apprentices and trainees who are being fostered. The continued education and training of our specialists and managers is also crucial for the quality of our work. A central element for achieving this goal is the continued education and training data base in our social intranet, which contains in excess of 160 continued education offers. We distinguish between technical and interdisciplinary offers: The technical qualifications are aimed at the individual areas of activity, and the interdisciplinary offers are primarily about leadership, communication behavior, or conflict resolution. This way we ensure that our employees are well-trained and continuously supported.

Reconcilability of Job and Family (Work/Life Balance)

We understand that our employees only have a clear head for their tasks if they can reconcile work and family life. That's why we the reconciliation of work and family life is deeply rooted in our corporate goals and we are a certified family-friendly employer.

Among other things, we have contact persons for family-related issues, a guide to re-entry after parental leave, various work location and working time models, as well as our own career and family portal on our social intranet. Information and tips on childcare services, maternity leave, parental leave, parental benefits, care for relatives and much more can be found there.

Occupational Health Management

We care about healthy, efficient and motivated employees. For this reason, we have had a lively Company Health Management system for several years (abbreviated: BGM = Betriebliches Gesundheitsmanagement)

Our BGM team organizes regular health weeks and action days on topics such as nutrition, exercise, stress avoidance or smoking cessation. The team's first big heart related topic is fitness: We offer our employees a membership in the Hansefit program and the EGYM Wellpass in Cuxhaven.

And we are also physically on the go outside the fitness studios: There are various company sports groups, such as Kutterpullen (cutter rowing), soccer, running, dragon boat competitions, bowling, etc.

Working Hours and Holidays

Our ports have to function like clockwork 24/7. We have many working time models to suit the different requirements. We offer everything from flex time, fixed working hours, shift work or home office. Flexibility is required from all sides: Both, the employees and the employer. In dialog, we develop solutions for working hours and workplace models. This is important to us, because we know that not every working hours model is suitable for certain phases of life and that our employees have different needs. This may mean that after a family time-out, a reduction in the volume of work may be necessary, or that a care situation requires a change in working hours in the short term. If you work, you must also have time to recover. According to the collective agreement, we offer all employees 30 days of vacation each year. Therefore we offer agreements for mini sabbaticals and the conversion of pay into vacation, in order to allow our employees the required time-out, if necessary.

Workers’ Council

Participation in the workers’ council means taking responsibility. That means that our eleven members always have an open ear for all of the nearly 700 NPorts employees. They represent the interests of employees within the framework of corporate co-determination. Health, occupational health and safety, equality between women and men, reconciliation of work and family life, social issues and many other issues are also discussed with the management in regular meetings.

The workers’ council participates in various committees such as the Occupational Safety Committee, the Economic Committee or the working group Occupational Health Management.
Practice Leads to Perfection: Our youth and apprentice representation focuses on the concerns of our young colleagues.

Success Stories

For a few years now, I have taken advantage of the opportunity to work from home one day a week. Working from home gives me the chance to take my kids to school and it also allows my wife to get to work very early. On days when I work in the office, my day usually starts at 4:45 a.m. with the sound of my alarm clock. At around 6:30 a.m., I am in my office in Brake and support my colleagues with any uncertainties or questions. A typical workday ends around 4:30 p.m. so that I can be home in time for dinner. Every Tuesday, I work from home. On those days, I wake up my kinds and take them to school before I start working. Since I only work from home one day, the cooperation is just as good as the days at the office, so I don't really "miss" anything. It's just the small talks and face-to-face interactions that I look forward to. Since NPorts gave me the option to work from home, my family life has changed. I enjoy the day at my family's side: the drive to school with the kids, eating together, and the various activities in the afternoon that are otherwise not possible within the working week because I come home late. These are all advantages that I appreciate very much and that I do not take for granted.

Stefan Onken, Information Technology Department Brake

Currently I am working 30 instead of 38,5 hours a week. Tuesdays I am off work and on the other days I am on site full-time. I have tried out different part-time models, for example working only six hours every day. For myself I can say that an entire day off suits me better - not only operationally, but also personally. A fixed day off does not only give me a better planning security, but also my team. Everyone knows what's going on and appointments can be scheduled better by everyone. For part-time models to work successfully it is very important to have a team as well as a flexible employer who allows those models and stand behind it. In addition, direct colleagues must think and act independently and on their own responsibility. I think I'm a good example that part-time can also work as a man and head of department. That strengthens acceptance - especially among male colleagues. As a manager, the personal interests of my employees are very important to me. I therefore try to be considerate and facilitate individual solutions, which makes me even more grateful that my team stands behind me.

Uwe Holst, Head of Technical Service Department

Family life has become quite a bit more relaxed with my home office arrangement. I work from home every Monday, so I always try to schedule as much paperwork as possible for that day. Because of that, I tend to have time to leave my desk on the other days and be seen in the workshop or on our construction sites. From Tuesday until Thursday I am in the office, at the construction sites, or attending out-of-town appointments. While working from home, I can always be reached by phone or email. Otherwise, I prefer to seek personal interaction with my team. I know that I can have full confidence in the work of my colleagues. I am on the road a lot anyway because of various appointments and I am always informed about everything that is necessary. Thanks to home office, I am less often forced to end my workday around noon because of my children. Before, I used to get a stomach ache by just thinking about my due hours on my ‘time banking’ account and my full desk. Now it's less common for me to have to stay late at the office to get my hours back up. As a result, I have more time for my family in the afternoon. As a family-friendly company, I expect all colleagues to accept teleworking. Nowadays, flexibility is becoming increasingly important for employees, both professionally and privately.

Hannes Wewerka, Head of Technical Service Norden

After I gave birth to my daughter in November 2013, I was on parental leave for a year. When I returned to my job, I started to work 15 hours a week. I was able to freely arrange my working hours and thus schedule them around the care of my little one. I am grateful to NPorts that it worked out that way. Since my husband was still working alternating shifts at the time, I was able to start at 6 a.m. on his late shift. On his early shift, my parents stepped in and I often didn't start work until 10 o'clock. The flex time and the fact that I was able to work around the core hours helped me a lot in balancing work and family life. When my daughter started day care a year later, I was able to increase my weekly working hours to 20. Now, my daughter goes to kindergarten and I work from home two days a week. This way, I can take her to kindergarten and then work from home without any stress. On the other days, I drive to Norddeich, just under 15 km away, which means a daily drive of just under an hour for me. If my child has to stay home due to illness for example, there is always a solution at NPorts: Rescheduling of my home office days, taking unused vacation days or reducing hours. For me, it was really worth it to take this step. For me, it was the best decision to balance family and career that way. Thank you NPorts :-)

Martina Gersema, Ship Reporting Office Norddeich, Port Office

My daily balancing act between work and family usually works out very well. I receive a lot of support and understanding from my colleagues and superiors. I appreciate that very much. My working hours and childcare times are flexible and we are well organized and structured at home. Before I start working, I take my children to school and kindergarten. After 6 hours in the office, I finish work and pick up my children again. As a working mom, I have soft skills that get me through my (office) day well. The times when you only "get something done" while the baby is finally asleep have turned into the skill of working efficiently. I have also had to acquire a way of communicating that excludes as many chances for misinterpretation as possible. Children are the best training partners for that. They immediately point out the smallest complacencies. I like going to the office and I like going home just as much. For me, work and family are like yin and yang, two opposing yet interrelated ways of life that are not mutually exclusive but complementary. I only have one life and I love it very much.

Alexandra Brandt, Deputy Branch Manager Cuxhaven

This Is What We Have on Board for You